


A New Hope

by Destinee Zara (LadyDestineeZara)



Series: Shiro Week [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (echoing), All characters (except Pidge) are 18+ unless told otherwise, Angst, Black and Shiro had a disfuntional mother/son relationship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, M/M, Only mentions of Galra Keith, have some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 01:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8647063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDestineeZara/pseuds/Destinee%20Zara
Summary: Black was still scared of her choice, but for the first time in 10 thousand years she had something new.A new hope that things would be ok.Maybe she could still be a good mother after all.(Written for the fifth day of the Shiro Week hosted by blackpaladinweek.tumblr.com, theme "Black Lion")





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!
> 
> Welcome to the fifth day of the Shiro Week hosted by blackpaladinweek.tumblr.com, theme "Black Lion"!
> 
> THIS STORY IS UNEDITED! So, pardon any English mistakes (let me know if you find any). Also, Engrishi is not my first language, so forgive my mistakes if I don’t Engrishi well.
> 
> I don't know if I'll do all the seven days, but I'll try my best!
> 
> Just one little note before you start reading:  
> \- [Text after dashes] = TALKING (A Romance Language custom, I guess)  
> "[Text between quotation marks]" = THOUGHTS/THE LIONS TALKING TO EACH OTHER  
>  _Text in italic_ = THE LIONS TALKING TO THEIR PALADINS
> 
> Now, to the story!

The Oldest Lion, Black, never knew how to do with her protégés emotions.

It was not as if she was cruel and heatless. Black just tried to have fighting and keeping the peace in the universe on focus in her mind and not pay attention to anything else.

She had a goal: to keep the universe safe.

Emotions seemed to deviant from that path that she had made for herself and her protégés, her paladins.

Also, she couldn’t help but feel that whenever she tried to understand and talk about it with one of her protégés, things would get… messy. The last time she tried to help a protégé was still a wound that she hadn’t licked enough.

Black REALLY tried to placate the anger and the power hunger inside young Zarkon. He was a boy with wonder in his heart, but terrible thoughts inside his mind. She tried to keep him on the right side of life. She really did. She talked with him, tried to make him feel safe and cherished, tried help him make his thoughts more clear and undisturbed.

As Red liked to call them the “mothers” to their paladins. And Black tried her best to be a good mother.

Yet, the more she tried, the more it seemed like Zarkon was walking the dark path.

The Oldest still believed that he could be a good person.

And maybe from that belief it came two things that were now getting on Black’s nerves.

Number 1: She was still connected to Zarkon. She could feel him, alive, with his life stretched by evil means, like rancid butter spread over mouldy bread. Her wish for him to see the faults on his path still made her connected to him.

Number 2 (the worse one): She couldn’t fully connect to Shiro like she did with all her former paladins.

Black tried to clear her mind from Zarkon’s presence. She meditated, she tried to let go of her hopes. But it was no use.

“I wish I could just disconnect from emotions all together.” she vented out with Yellow one afternoon “Mine and my protégés’.”

Yellow had pondered for a while.

(Yellow was the second Lion more in tune with her paladin’s emotions, she only lost to Red).

“But feelings are what make us love our little ones, Black. Don’t you love Shiro just like I love my Hunk or the others love their little ones?”

The Oldest Lion didn’t had an answer for that.

It was not that she didn’t want to love Shiro. He was very loveable, with his big heart, selflessness and wit. But his mind was in shambles for all he endured under Zarkon’s imprisonment and Black’s heart still mourned for her lost protégé.

She was a mother without a son and he was a son without a mother, and yet they didn’t seemed to tune together.

So she focused on defending the universe, focused in pretending to sustain a profound link with her paladin. The universe depended on that.

Maybe that was the only thing they had in common: he was good at pretending that he was ok and she was good at pretending that nothing affected her.

Black could **feel** how her cold and distant attitude was hurting her protégé. Shiro sometimes would try to comment things about his daily life, just like all the other paladins did in some measure to their own Lions. He commented about the other paladins, about the princess, about missing home, about his boyfriend (Red’s protégé) and some other little things.

Black listened, but she remained silent.

Shiro never shared anything profound.

It was a delicate dance over the edge of a cliff in the dark, and the Oldest hated to admit that she was scared of what was at the bottom of it.

But even the most steady balance can be broken.

And their breaking point was Keith (Red’s protégé and Shiro’s boyfriend), or, to be more precise, Keith’s true nature.

Galra hybrid.

On the very first moment after Keith’s transformation, the Lions, except Red, were wary with another Galra on the team. Zarkon had left scars in all of them. But Red insisted that he was alright, that he was, in her words, a lionheart.

(Red liked to call the paladins their lionhearts. Green would scorn, and Blue would always defend her favourite sister. The Oldest never knew what to think about this statement).

True to her words, Red’s protégé proved that he was more than worthy of being a paladin by defending the Castle and defending his team, even if said team had turned their back on him (and even mistreated him, like Green’s protégé did).

Brave, selfless and resourceful. If it wasn’t for his temperamental character, she would love to have Keith as her protégé. Black couldn’t help but feel envious of Red and her protégé and the way they could connect, not in a battle dexterity, but in emotions.

(Emotions. Why everything in Black’s life seemed to circle those awful things?)

Right after that, Keith was accepted not only by the Lions, but by some of the Voltron team members. Blue and Yellow protégés were already warming pretty quick to him, and Black heard that one of the Alteans (the older one, Coran if she wasn’t mistaken) was already feeling ok with Keith’s status.

The Oldest could feel that his protégé had conflicted feeling about the situation. Love, hate, hate, love, trust, feeling betrayed, regret, guilt, love, hate, hate, love all mixed in a whirlwind that he couldn’t pull himself off.

And he was quiet.

Holding to himself.

And Black, for the sake of their twisted balance, pretended not to see.

What a terrible mother that she was!

Until Shiro shattered the balance.

It was night. She could feel that he had a nightmare (again). However, differently from all the other times that either Keith (before his transformation) calmed him down or that Shiro started to train recklessly, Shiro ran to her.

He was barefoot and dishevelled, still wearing his sleep clothes.

Of course that she let him in. She could feel his distress and she was not an animal!

Shiro looked around, not sure to where to fixate his stare.

\- Hi, Black. I, hum, I’m sorry to disturb you. I just… - he took a deep breath – I don’t know to whom to talk to about this!

She would take a deep breath if she could to steal her mind for that.

 _You can tell me everything, Shiro_.

\- But I need answers this time! I… - he sat at the pilot’s chair and put his face between his hands, assuming a defeated posture – I don’t know what to do…

Inaction would be cruelty. Action would mean to be compromised.

What she should do?

_You don’t know about what, protégé?_

Shiro took another deep breath.

\- Keith. I don’t know if I can trust him. He is Galra, and all the Galra that we met were disgusting son of a guns. But he is also, well, **him** , and I still love Keith. I want to love him, especially now. If he is really who he says he is, then he needs me more than anything now, but I’m still so scared of being captured again by the Galra. I wouldn’t survive another day at the Arena. I would freak out. I don’t want to go there anymore. I just… I just…

He started to hyperventilate.

_Breathe, Shiro. Breathe._

With hesitation, her essence touched him, like ghost warm fingers caressing his face and back.

He took a few long and slow deep breaths.

\- What should I do? – he cried quietly, almost broking Black’s heart.

The Oldest saw two paths before her.

Number 1: Inaction. Say “I don’t know what you should do”. It would keep things as they were before. That dark balance over the edge, that twisted status quo.

Number 2: Taking a leap of faith.

Seeing him crying before her broke all balance she could have.

“Bloody Hell!” she thought before making up her mind for good.

_You must love him._

Shiro looked up in surprise and stayed in silence so she could continue.

Black sighed.

_Your lover from the past is gone. Even if Keith appearance turn back to the way it was before, his mind had already changed. The idea of the man you loved is shattered and will never be the same again. So you have to love the one that still is here. He is still your beloved, the one you chose to fall in love with. And he needs you. So you have to love him._

He looked down again.

\- It is so difficult…

_I never said it would be easy. He knows that you have your scars, and he have some of his own. But if you two love each other, if you communicate that and if you restore the trust that you two had before, than maybe something good can grow from this._

\- I don’t even know if I can trust him!

_Red does. I do. And I bet that deep in your heart you do too. Isn’t that enough?_

He stayed in silence, pondering for some instants. Then Shiro opened a tired smile.

\- Yeah… You are probably right…

Black hummed in agreement.

_Use baby steps. You have a long road ahead you, but you can go slow._

He reclined on the chair.

\- Thanks, Black.

_You’re welcome, protégé._

He bit his lower lip.

\- Do you mind if I stay here for a little while? It always soothes me.

The Oldest couldn’t help but beam.

 _Of course. Take your time_.

They sat in silence for a while.

Shiro was close to fall asleep. Black didn’t have that privilege.

She stayed thinking about what she had said.

Was she telling that for Shiro or for herself?

Maybe they weren’t so different after all.

Black was still scared of her choice, but for the first time in 10 thousand years she had something new.

A new hope that things would be ok.

Maybe she could still be a good mother after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Making off of this story:
> 
> I have a test tomorrow, I just studied for half of it, but I honestly have no regrets.  
> Like, things were really messy at my college today and I end up arguing with some stupid people over facebook. I was too worked up to continue studying, so I started to write.  
> Am I screwed on the test tomorrow? Hell yeah, but at least I'll sleep better.
> 
> Now, I confess that because of fanfic "[sweet revelation](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8024137/chapters/18371878)", I just couldn't help my thoughts when the first thing in my mind was to make something erotic with Shiro using the name "BlackLion" and Keith riding the hell out of that dick.
> 
> But I had NO TIME and NO MOTIVATION.
> 
> Also, most important: I wanted to do something mirroring Keith Week. I did something showing the inside of Red's relation with Keith there and I made something for Black and Shiro here.  
> ALSO I WAS MISSING MY FAVOURITE THEME, GALRA!KEITH! 8D SO WHAT A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THOSE 2 THINGS!  
> (and because I'm lazy and making stuff about Galra Keith is my lazy ways. Fight me.)
> 
> But I must say, **THIS IS NOT RELATED TO MY BIG ASS FANFIC "[What Makes a Hero?](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7746229/chapters/17661241)"**. Just to make things clear in case you are reading that fanfic, this is a whole different universe, ok?
> 
> Anyway, I imagine that Black have some conflicted feelings about het two protégés and that is why Zarkon can still command her.
> 
> Also, in case you have read the fanfic from Keith week "[Mother Knows Best](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8153960)" (the one with Red's POV), each Lion have a way to call their paladins.  
> Red, Blue and Yellow are the most affectionate and call their paladins:  
> Red = Cub  
> Blue = Kitten  
> Yellow = Little one  
> Green and Black are a little less affectionate so they call their paladins:  
> Black = Protégé/Protégée/Protege  
> Green = Apprentice  
> I don't know from where this headcanon came from, honestly. I just don't think that they would call the paladins the same thing. Each of them have a personality, you know.
> 
> Also, Black have a British accent. Sorry, I don't make the rules. 
> 
> I'm tired and I cannot sleep yet...  
> Have things to do...  
> Fuck me...
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you have enjoyed it! Leave a kudo and a comment if you liked this story s2
> 
> I'm on tumblr if you want to find me! (I'm kinda awkward, but yeah...).  
> [@wonderland-s-angel](wonderland-s-angel.tumblr.com). I swear that I don't bite, I'm just a dork with a pink blog.
> 
> Comments help me to get going, you know. Like, SERIOUSLY, they keep me going.
> 
> I hope I’ll see ya tomorrow =3
> 
> Bye-bye! o/


End file.
